Dead Evolution

by Tim Moon

  “And if we have to escape?” Chadwick asked. “How do we leave if both sides are blocked?”

  “Good point.” Ben frowned. “Obviously I didn’t think far enough ahead.”

  “We couldn’t take the time to push a car out of the way if we’re making a dash,” Chadwick added.

  “You couldn’t, Hop-Along,” Ben said with a chuckle.

  Chadwick blushed, and they laughed harder.

  “What’s the answer then?” Chadwick asked with his hands on his hips and a slight furrow to his brow.

  “We can leave a gap that’s just big enough to drive through,” Anuhea said.

  “And block it with something that’s easy to move,” Ben added. “Plywood maybe?”

  “That’s not bad,” Chadwick said, tapping his chin. After a moment, he added, “How about one of those zig-zag roadblocks?” He drove his hand through the air to demonstrate.

  Ben snapped his fingers and pointed at him. “That’s a great idea.”

  “I think that’ll work,” Anuhea agreed.

  An hour later, they had pushed enough vehicles into place to form their first perimeter wall. It stretched from the corner house, through the front yard, across the street, and all the way to the next house. There were no gaps. The fastest way to cross was to climb over the car hoods. Maneuvering the last two vehicles into place had taken the longest since they wanted a tight fit.

  “That’s a great start,” Ben said.

  “A start?” Chadwick groaned.

  “This is enough to keep stragglers from wandering in. A large enough group of zombies could end up pushing cars out of the way, and creating gaps between them.” Ben thought about other possibilities. “It won’t keep people out at all. So, yeah, at some point it will need more work.”

  They meandered to the other end of the block to repeat the process. Chadwick moved slowly, which gave Ben and Anuhea time to catch their breath.

  “Can we drive the cars into place?” Chadwick asked with a sigh, wiping sweat from his brow. The front yard was damp and that made it five times more difficult to get the car into place. Faint wisps of steam rolled off his body into the chilled air.

  “No,” Anuhea said flatly.

  “If we waste time looking for keys we’ll run out of daylight.” Ben leaned against the car and took a few deep breaths. The sun lingered in the sky, but it would start getting dark soon. “And it’s too noisy.”

  “Noisier than all the huffing you’re doing?” A sly grin spread on Chadwick’s face.

  “Good one,” Ben said.

  They got started on the west end of the road. With the way one of the houses sat, it took six cars, two SUVs, and a minivan to block the space. Two cars and the minivan made up the zig-zag portion so that they could still escape. Looking at the completed wall made Ben’s chest swell with pride. It was a small thing, but the makeshift walls could mean the difference between life and death.

  “This is fantastic,” he said.

  “I’m glad it’s done,” Chadwick said, stretching his arms. He leaned over and rubbed his leg.

  “For now.” Anuhea grinned. Then gave Chadwick a comforting pat on the back when he groaned.

  Then they heard another groan, guttural and low. Ben glanced at Chadwick who looked up at him with wide eyes. Anuhea leaned over a car hood and sucked in a breath.

  “Infected?” Ben asked.

  She nodded. “I see four, headed this way.”

  “That’s not so bad,” Ben said. “Let’s clear them out.”

  Everyone clambered over the hoods of the vehicle wall. The first two zombies angled towards them, growling and snapping. The others followed dutifully behind.

  “Keep it quiet. Use your knife,” Anuhea said as a reminder.

  Chadwick went out into the street, towards the two stragglers. Ben rushed the nearest zombie with Anuhea beside him, going for the other one. The two infected wore ratty police uniforms that were stained with blood. One had his stomach exposed, intestines drooping out like giant spaghetti noodles that jiggled with each step. The other officer’s left bicep had been chewed down to the bone. His arm hung limply at its side, while his other hand reached up for Ben – bare fingers, pale and tainted by gore, flexed in anticipation. The officer’s blood-stained mouth gaped open, unleashing a moan. And those dark, soulless eyes… Ben shivered.

  With a swift kick, he knocked the officer off balance. As the officer rocked back, Ben shoved hard, knocking him to the ground. The zombie grunted but never lost sight of his goal. Those dark eyes stayed fixed on Ben, his hand still reaching out for him. Ben grabbed the reaching hand and twisted it away, while thrusting the knife into the eye socket with a dull crunch.

  Ben stood with a grunt and went to help Chadwick who was fending off the last two infected. He used his rifle as a clumsy bat, smacking aside their eager hands. He wasn’t gaining ground though. With both on him, Chadwick was being forced backwards across the street where Ben worried he might trip over the curb.

  An infected woman in a red dress and black jacket slipped on the wet leaves, her shredded leg crumpled, and she dropped to a knee. Chadwick’s rifle whizzed overhead, throwing him off balance. With a yelp of surprise and pain, Chadwick also found himself on the ground.

  Ben managed to distract the second zombie, which kept his friend from ending up on the bottom of a dog pile. Even as Ben prepared to kill the zombie, he glimpsed three more emerging from in-between houses behind Chadwick. He cursed under his breath.

  The infected took the chance to snap at Ben. He caught the zombie by the throat, mere inches from his face. It clawed at him with ragged finger nails that snagged on his jacket.

  “Three more coming,” Ben said between gritted teeth.

  Chadwick scrambled on the ground, still grappling with the woman. Ben spun the infected around, hoping to pull it off balance but all it did was earn him a scrape across the chin from those damned finger nails. Out of the corner of his eye, Ben saw Anuhea run to Chadwick, yank the woman’s head back by her hair and plunge the knife into her temple. Blood dripped on Chadwick as he skittered backwards.

  Ben swiped his elbow hard across the face of the zombie and it staggered backwards. He lunged forward, leading with his knife and scored a hit just under its eye. Grabbing it by the shirt, Ben held it in place as he shoved the blade deeper into its skull. With a crack and slurping sound, the body went limp and fell from his grasp. He reached down for his blade and then helped his friends dispatch the last three infected.

  Exhausted from the fight, they took a moment to look each other over for bites. It didn’t take long to realize they had survived yet another encounter. Ben and Anuhea piled the bodies in between a couple of houses across from their wall. They could move them further away later.

  Daylight was fading, casting an orange glow across the bottom of the clouds and Ben didn’t want to go out after dark. They had accomplished their goals for the day, and then some, so they started towards home to rest and get ready for dinner. All the hard work made their stomachs growl.

  When they were almost to the house, the smell of food wafted on the breeze. Ben’s stomach growled so loudly the others heard it. Anuhea chuckled at him.

  “That’s the best thing I’ve smelled all week,” she said.

  “Better than the baked beans I made?” Chadwick asked.

  He was dead serious, which made Ben laugh. Anuhea shook her head. Only a Brit could be so serious about baked beans.

  Ben looked at his mom’s house and an idea started to form. Before they reached the front porch, he stopped and looked around.

  “What is it?” Anuhea asked. Her tone and demeanor grew serious and she raised her rifle.

  He raised an eyebrow at her quick response and patted the air in a calming gesture.

  “I just had an idea. That’s all,” Ben said. He motioned to the front lawn. “How about we add another line of cars right here? Just a short, kind of half circle, you know? Enough to block the porch off and give us cover
in case we need to fight. One more barrier between us and the infected.”

  “Makes me wish we could park the old Humvee there with Keanu on the machine gun,” Chadwick said wistfully. “Park that beast up front and we’d be set.”

  Anuhea chuckled but couldn’t hide a hint of sadness in her eyes. It was clear to everyone that she missed being around the brothers. She had fallen in with them easily, like their little sister. If it wasn’t for Charlotte coming with him, Ben felt certain Anuhea would have left with the ship.

  Good thing she didn’t, he thought. She was the best marksman in the group.

  “Let’s get this party started,” Ben said before leading them to the neighbor’s garage.

  They had cleared this house out for Oliver, just after arriving, to give him a place to play and be noisy. There were toys galore from the kids that used to live there. The only area off limits to Oliver was the garage. Ben knew it held two vehicles, an old Ford Taurus and a newer Ford Focus.

  They lifted the garage doors and prepared to move them. Once the cars started rolling they let momentum and gravity do most of the work. The Taurus rolled about halfway across the yard before they really had to push. Keeping the car moving across the wet lawn was hard as hell. The damp grass and saturated soil squelched beneath their feet and seemed to fight them for every inch they moved. They parked the Taurus on the far side of the stairs at a forty-five-degree angle to the road.

  Halfway back to the garage for the second car, Chadwick’s foot slipped on the damp lawn. He yelped as he fell forward and collapsed to the ground beside Ben. He moaned pitifully and clutched his injured leg.

  “Are you okay, man?” Ben asked.

  Chadwick lay on the ground, breathing heavily with his eyes clenched shut.

  “Come on, get up,” Anuhea said. She motioned for Ben to help and they both reached down to pull him up.

  Chadwick opened one eye for a brief second. He let out a heavy breath, slowly sat up and then accepted the offered hands. They pulled him to his feet and Ben put an arm around him for support. Chadwick was wet, muddy and undoubtedly cold.

  “Charlotte will lose her shit if she sees you like this,” Ben said, glancing up at the house. “Let’s get you inside so you can clean up.”

  Anuhea nodded in agreement.

  Grumbling like a bitter old man, Chadwick reluctantly accepted the advice. Ben helped him to the stairs.

  “Thanks for the help. I can make it from here,” Chadwick said. He tugged at his wet jacket that clung to his back and let out a chilled gasp, opting to leave it be until he was inside.

  “No problem. Hey, while you’re in there, get some oil for the screen door,” Ben said.

  Anuhea slapped him on the shoulder. Ben grinned.

  With a wave of his hand, Chadwick hobbled upstairs to the front door.

  Ben and Anuhea watched him leave and then got back to work. After the Focus was in place, they still another car for the side to complete the barrier. They went across the street for the final vehicle, which turned out to be a van.

  “Should we save this for raids?” Ben asked.

  Anuhea shrugged. “There’s no shortage of vans or any other vehicle these days. Gas is the only thing we really need to be careful with.”

  She was right, so they used it to form the last part of the U-shaped wall in front of the house. It was different from how he had envisioned it, but it would still work.

  They collapsed on the stairs, exhausted.

  “Thanks for all your help,” Ben said, wiping sweat from his forehead.

  “What are friends for?” Anuhea asked with a smile, brushing dirt off her pants. The wet clump held on stubborn as a tick and smeared into a larger stain, wiping away her smile. “Damn it.” She stood and climbed the steps.

  Ben caught a glimpse of her round ass as she did. A twinge of guilt struck him, so he turned away.

  Pushing aside inappropriate thoughts, he began to survey the area, looking for infected. There were still a few ways they could get in and zombies had a way of sneaking up when you least expected them. Ben always tried to remain alert. He strained to hear moaning or shuffling feet, but the neighborhood was silent and eerie. Swaying trees and a few skittering leaves were the only things that caught his attention.

  All clear for now, he thought.

  It was only a matter of time though. Although Vancouver was not a large city compared to Portland, Oregon, which sat just across the river, it was several times bigger than either Kona or Hilo. That meant the herds of infected would also be much larger and more widespread than anything they had experienced in Hawaii.

  Ben unslung his rifle from across his back. The sling had dug into his shoulder during their work. He felt for the tender area and massaged it while he maintained watch on the neighborhood.

  Standing behind the makeshift wall of vehicles, he felt like a soldier guarding a castle. A boring yet necessary duty. The worst part was the silence that let his mind roam free. It often went to dark places he would rather not think about.

  Ben heard lumbering footsteps a moment before the front door opened. The screen squeaked open and Chadwick emerged in dry clothes.

  “Don’t go for a walk at night, you might get mistaken for a zombie.” Ben chuckled.

  “Think that’s funny do you?” Chadwick said with a grin.

  “Seriously though, you forgot the oil.” Ben jerked a thumb at the door.

  “Right.” Chadwick sighed. “Too late now.”

  Ben looked at his friend. “What’s up?”

  “Do you need anything?”

  “I’m fine. How’s the leg?”

  “Ah, you know. A real pain in the arse,” Chadwick said. “Are you sure you don’t need anything?”

  “Just let me know when dinner’s ready. I’m fine until then.”

  “Fair enough.” Chadwick went back in and the screen door creaked again.

  “Get some oil,” Ben said after him.

  “Too far, can’t hear you.”

  Ben smiled to himself.

  His brain didn’t waste any time mulling over problems. After Chadwick’s leg healed, would he go to California to search for his parents? Deep down he hoped Chadwick would stay, but Ben wouldn’t blame him if he left.

  Ben sighed and walked down the steps to the cars. He climbed until he was on top of the van, where he sat down to keep watch.

  Chadwick’s plans are a problem for another day, he thought.

  3

  Dim light emanated from a pair of battery-powered lanterns hanging above the rectangular oak dinner table. A generous spread of food sat atop a festive tablecloth. No one knew the exact date; just that it was the holiday season. White snowmen on a red background brought a cheerful mood to the room.

  Holidays had always been a big deal at home. Ben tried to ignore the small voice that pointed out how the tablecloth was a reminder of how things used to be and what they used to have. Ben turned his attention to the food, and his eyes bulged at the feast.

  While Anuhea and Ben cleaned their weapons and prepped gear for the next day, his mom, Nancy, and Charlotte had cooked the meal with a bit of help from Chadwick. One giant bowl of beef and vegetable stew sat steaming in the middle of the table, looking fit for a king. A small mountain of mashed potatoes called out to Ben. He lovingly eyed the rivulets of melting butter that ran down the sides like magma. Even the modest salad they had made looked delicious.

  Oliver traced his finger over one of the snowmen.

  “Does it snow here?” he asked. “I like snow. We can make snowmen.” He looked at Ben. “Do you think it will snow?”

  Nancy was busy in the kitchen and no one else in the room had been to Vancouver before. Ben felt everyone’s attention fall on him. He cleared his throat.

  “Maybe. We don’t usually get a lot of snow here. When we do, it usually melts after a few days,” Ben said.

  Oliver frowned as he continued to trace one of the snowmen with his finger. “I hope it snows.”

/>   “Me too,” Ben said. Although he wasn’t so sure he wanted snow. “Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  He wondered how snow or freezing temperatures might affect the infected. Few had died with proper winter gear on. Surely the cold temperatures would slow them.

  Might be a good chance to cull the herd, he thought.

  Ben’s stomach growled at the smell of food, pulling him from that line of thought. When Nancy and Charlotte walked into the room carrying bread rolls and a steaming bowl of canned corn with butter melting on top, it growled so loudly he worried they would hear him again. He nearly pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

  Actual butter! He could hardly believe his own eyes.

  Chadwick brought in a tray of grilled meat from the garage. Ben bit his lip at the glorious sight.

  “It’s so beautiful, I think I might cry,” Ben said, rubbing the corner of his eye for effect.

  His friends chuckled.

  “We need to find some propane tanks soon,” Chadwick told Ben.

  “How much do we have left?” he asked.

  “A few days’ worth at the most.”

  Ben sighed and nodded.

  Most of the food was cooked on a gas-powered camping stove. The garage was safer than inside the house where people lived. It was also better than the backyard where the smell of food would spread, possibly attracting infected or other survivors. Neither scenario appealed to them. So, they accepted the small risk of starting a fire by cooking inside the garage.

  Ben savored every bite. The meat was tender, the vegetables soft but not mushy, and the mashed potatoes were heavenly. Fresh food was comforting and filling in a way that packaged food just couldn’t match.

  As he savored another bite of tender, juicy meat, a realization struck Ben. Unless he was wrong, the last of their fresh meat was on the table. Fresh here was relative, Ben knew, it was merely the last of the meat from the freezer that looked safe to eat. Unless they wanted to spend their future eating canned meat and MRE mystery patties, they would all have to learn how to hunt and butcher wild game. He was not confident in his hunting skills. Even if he managed to kill a deer or something, his knowledge and ability to skin and butcher an animal that large was minimal at best.